Marlins pitcher Dan Straily is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of June 16:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.4 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 13.0 |
| 3 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 11.4 |
| 4 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.0 |
| 5 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 8.4 |
| 6 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 8.2 |
| 7 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 8.0 |
| 8 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 8.0 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 7.7 |
| 10 | Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 7.7 |
Also Friday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, earned Player of the Game honors. Plus, two other players rose into Box-Toppers top 10 player rankings for the season—Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood rose to seventh and Red Sox closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel rose to 10th.
Player of the Day—Straily struck out eight over 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and no walks, in the 5-0 win over the Braves.
American League Player of the Day—Melky Cabrera of the White Sox homered, doubled and went 2-for-4, scoring three times and driving in five runs, in the 11-4 win over the Blue Jays.
National League Batter of the Day—Paul DeJong of the Cardinals homered and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 11-2 win over the Orioles.
This was DeJong’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. DeJong made his Major League debut May 28 and was playing in his 14th career game. He is the 3,827th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Friday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Melky Cabrera.
Scherzer—Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer maintains his second-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Scherzer (8IP 4H R 2BB 10K W in the 7-2 win over the Mets) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 13.0 for the season. He trails overall leader and NL pitching leader Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (14.4 Box-Toppers points).
Scherzer also rises to 26th place in career Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Friday he has 144.7 career points, passing Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels (144.0) on the “all-time” list. He now trails 25th-ranked player David Ortiz (145.9).
Passing Hamels, Scherzer now ranks ninth among active players in career Box-Toppers points, seventh among active pitchers. He trails the eighth-ranked active player Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers (146.9) and the sixth-ranked active pitcher Jon Lester of the Cubs (147.2).
Scherzer narrowly missed out on earning overall Player of the Day honors Friday. His Box-Toppers game score of 10.0 was topped by Straily’s game score of 10.1.
Rankings—Two players rose into Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list after earning Player of the Game honors Friday:
- Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood (8IP 4H R 0BB 5K W in the 3-1 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.0 for the season, rising to seventh place in player rankings, fourth among NL pitchers.
- Red Sox closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K Sv in the 2-1 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.7 for the season, rising to 10th in player rankings, fourth among AL pitchers and most among all closing pitchers.
Notable—Adrian Beltre of the Rangers now has 112.3 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Beltre (1-2 2R 2BI in the 10-4 win over the Mariners) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, his first of the season, and ranks 53rd among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 52nd-ranked player Kevin Brown (112.8). Beltre ranks 16th among all batters since 1995 and third among all active batters in career points, behind Albert Pujols of the Angels (184.3) and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers (146.9).
Also notable—DJ LeMahieu of the Rockies earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for the second straight day Friday.
LeMahieu (2B 4-4 2R 2BI in the 10-8 win over the Giants) was also Box-Toppers NL Batter of the Day Thursday in the 10-9 win over the Giants. LeMahieu has 2.5 Box-Toppers points on the season, all earned in the past two days.
Scoring—Straily earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cabrera earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. DeJong earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 6/16 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.1 | MIA 5, ATL 0 | Dan Straily (W,5-4) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| 10.0 | WSH 7, NYM 2 | Max Scherzer (W,8-4) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | ||
| 7.0 | LAD 3, CIN 1 | Alex Wood (W,7-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | CHW 11, TOR 4 | Melky Cabrera, LF | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | STL 11, BAL 2 | Paul DeJong, 2B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | KC 3, LAA 1 | Ian Kennedy (W,1-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 4.1 | CLE 8, MIN 1 | Carlos Carrasco (W,7-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ||
| 4.0 | COL 10, SF 8 | DJ LeMahieu, 2B | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | DET 13, TB 4 | Justin Upton, LF | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.1 | `ARI 5, PHI 4 | Archie Bradley (H,11) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 9, PIT 5 | Willson Contreras, C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | TEX 10, SEA 4 | Adrian Beltre, 3B | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | OAK 7, NYY 6 | Santiago Casilla (S,11) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 2, HOU 1 | Craig Kimbrel (S,19) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | MIL 6, SD 5 (F/10) | Manny Pina, C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` Pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.
Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 13.0 | 38.7 | 116.9 | 144.7 | -12.7 |
| Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 8.0 | 9.0 | 27.4 | 27.4 | 7.0 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 7.7 | 15.7 | 60.4 | 66.4 | -0.3 |
| Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 7.4 | 19.8 | 48.5 | 53.9 | -5.0 |
| Straily, Dan 3080 | pi sp | fla nl | 6.0 | 13.0 | 23.7 | 23.7 | -1.0 |
| Cabrera, Melky 2143 | lf | chi al | 4.7 | 8.7 | 18.7 | 35.2 | 0.7 |
| Upton, Justin 2411 | lf | det al | 4.0 | 10.7 | 36.9 | 55.1 | -2.7 |
| Contreras, Willson 3776 | ca ph | chi nl | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Pina, Manny 3769 | ca | mil nl | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 | 13.0 | 44.1 | 69.5 | -7.0 |
| LeMahieu, DJ 3091 | 2b | col nl | 2.5 | 10.5 | 23.5 | 23.5 | -5.5 |
| Dejong, Paul 3827 | 2b | stl nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Beltre, Adrian 1141 | 3b | tex al | 1.0 | 10.5 | 44.4 | 112.3 | -8.5 |
| Casilla, Santiago 2301 | pi cp | oak al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 19.7 | 24.7 | -2.0 |
| Bradley, Archie 3438 | pi mr sp | ari nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | -2.0 |